SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
HITS
Dalton Castle: Castle makes his first appearance on ROH TV since defeating Cody at Final Battle. He talks about defeating Cody and how he is not a little fish in a big pond but rather a big fish in a big pond. Jay Lethal’s music hits and Lethal makes his way to the ring where Castle sarcastically asked Lethal what brings him to the ring. Of course, we all know Lethal wants a match for the ROH World title. Castle says he has to think about it and asked Lethal to take a seat as Castle’s Boys each make a seat for he and Lethal. Lethal takes a seat but then has second thoughts and stands up. It appears the segment is about to conclude when Castle tells Lethal that Lethal will get his shot at the title but out of nowhere Punishment Martinez attacks Castle and leaves him laid out in the ring as The Boys look on in shock. This was a solid segment. Multiple angles are at play here. One being Lethal’s shot at the title and the other being what does this mean for Punishment Martinez as we moved forward. Great start to this week’s episode and a nice twist to kick off 2018.
The Kingdom: The Kingdom continue to let their intentions be known. They have their sites on the ROH World tag team titles and the ROH 6-man titles. It’s just a matter of time that they own one or both of those. The promo wasn’t great, but it was enough moving into the new year. I also think it was good to reiterate this because they mentioned this a few times at the end of 2017 before Final Battle. This just continues with what’s been presented previously. Nothing spectacular here but its one more storyline in play in the new year.
Silas Young vs. Simon Grimm: This is Silas Young’s first ROH TV title defense since winning the title at Final Battle. This is just two old school style wrestlers having an old school match. Lots of heavy hitting punches and forearms in it and I was not complaining one bit watching these guys strike each other. Silas Young wins the match as expected. After the match, Kenny King makes his way out to the stage and has something to say. King tells everyone that Young robbed him by defeating him when Young hit him in the head with a beer bottle at Final Battle. Young does what a good heel should do and blows off Kenny’s claims and says in so many words that he beat King fair and square. King then says he’s had tons to drink and he’s ready for a fight. King then sprays Young in the face with beer and the pair have to be separated by ROH security. We go to commercial at that time with nothing resolved. This was another good segment. Based on this it would appear King and Young still have unfinished business and I’m a fan of seeing where this goes.
Women of Honor (WOH): We got a brief glimpse of the WOH championship belt and the announcement from Ian Riccaboni about the upcoming crowning of the WOH champion. I’m all for this. Women’s wrestling has really taken off over the last few years. There’s tons of talented ladies out there and this will help showcase the talent out there. I am glad they included this clip that originally aired at Final Battle.
The Briscoes vs. Eli Isom & Ryan Nova: Before the match started, we are shown a short clip of The Briscoes defeating Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer at Final Battle. The Briscoes then waste no time attacking Isom & Nova. The Briscoes make quick work of Isom & Nova. These guys have done everything a team can do in ROH. It makes you wonder what could be next for them. After the match, Jay Briscoe tells us loud and clear that they’re going after the Motor City Machine Guns and they want the tag team titles back. No shocker here since that seems to be the only direction they could go after the Dreamer and Bully Ray feud. This was an average segment, but it would be unfair to say it was a miss. It’s the Briscoes, they don’t miss because they’re that good. With that said, I am curious to see what 2018 has in store for them.
Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser: Backstage after Young’s match with Grimm and after the King incident, Bruiser and Young have a quick discussion. Bruiser tells Young that he would like to go after the ROH World tag titles. Bruiser claims that he has a guy in mind. Young tells Bruiser that is cool, and that Bruiser should go after the tag titles with a partner of his choice. We don’t get an idea of who Bruiser has in mind though. They don’t tease who it is at this point, so we’ll have to stay tuned. I like the direction here. Young is an outstanding singles talent. Bruiser is very talented in his own right. I’m looking forward to seeing the guy that he has in mind and seeing how this moves forward. This was another good segment on this week’s episode.
The Young Bucks & Adam Page: Continuing with the theme of the fallout from Final Battle, The Young Bucks and Adam Page have turned their attention to the team of SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian, Scorpio Sky, and Christopher Daniels). Page and The Young Bucks aren’t happy with how they were attacked by the trio at Final Battle and they tell SoCal Uncensored that they’ll give them a shot at their ROH 6-man titles.
Flip Gordon vs. Marty Scurll: Scurll cuts a somewhat cryptic promo before the match where he appears to aim towards going after one of the ROH single’s titles. This was a very good main event this week with two guys that I believe are two of the best in the promotion. By now most readers of my columns know that I am not a favor of tons of flips and dives, but I felt these guys made it all make sense and had a solid match. Scurll gets the win in a hard-fought battle. Good way to send us off on this week’s episode. Ian Riccaboni also did a good job of selling next week’s matches as we go off air.
MISSES
None to report. I enjoyed the new start to the year and that we started with a bunch of new angles and storylines.
Final Thoughts
After taking a bit of a break after Final Battle, ROH was back this week with fresh and new content to kick off the year. Everything had a point and made sense. There are a lot of new angles and storylines in play here as we go into 2018 and I think we were presented with some good things to look forward to. Excellent kickoff show to start the year.
Mike Mills is the PWTorch.com ROH TV Hits and Misses Specialist, providing his point of view on ROH TV weekly. You can follow Mike at @BTT_Podcast and @Mike504Saints on Twitter. Also, check out his old school wrestling podcasts at tinyurl.com/BTTPod.
NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: ROH HITS & MISSES 12/17: The Addiction vs. Coast To Coast, Shane Taylor, Coleman’s Pulpit with Brandi Rhodes, Six-Man Tag Main Event
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